A Pine Wood Derby Miracle

As to not mislead, we did not win the PWD today, but let's just say that producing speedy pinewood derby cars has not been Jared's forte, ever since he helped Caleb make the first Pine Wood derby car of the Harris boys over 5 years ago.  We've certainly had cool looking cars along the way, but we've never had a winner or placed in the top 10.  In fact the year they decided to go with the "swiss cheese" theme for all the boys was a near disaster with cars stopping before they reached the finish line!  Ouch.  Fast forward to 2013 and I believe a new leaf has turned over - and in the nick of time - because after today we'll only have two more boys to get through a few more years of derbys.  What I appreciate about this year's effort was all the work that they themselves put into their cars....there was much cutting, sanding and painting.  Construction began at the church during their den meeting and Grandpa Hill happened to be in town!

Phase 1 with the jig saw

Phase 1 with Grandpa Hill

Now their cars were not slick and shiny and Jonah's insistence on a jeep seemed scrappy to me at first, but it was what he wanted and in the end isn't that what really matters?  So what happened....how did these cars that ended up with more "boy" hours invested in them than "dad" hours win??  Jared says he thinks he has "cracked the code" and has to do with weight distribution, 90 degree axle placement, sanded tires, and a lot of that black stuff that "greases the axles"...graphite.  I also think there was a little luck or good karma involved as well.  What ever it was, it got Gavin to 1st place in the Wolves and Jonah 3rd place in the Wolves (he technically is a Tiger, but we have no Tigers in Pack 127, so here he is a Wolf).  And Gavin got 2nd place overall competing against 2 other packs and narrowly losing the final race-off to the eventual winner, a serious dad-engineered car!!   This was a first for the Harris gang, and oh the joy from Gavin.  He just kept saying that he couldn't really believe that it happened and when someone asked him what he thought made the difference he said "to be happy".   Plus, as he put it to someone else, "My Grandpa Hill helped me!"  Love that!   Liam's green car did well, but not quite as well as the others.  But for the record,  his is the best looking one in our collection and what amazes me is that he actually cut that fin from the scraps of wood left over from his initial curved cuts which he also cut by himself with a jig saw.  He was disappointed that he did not fair as well as his brothers, but he soon moved on and was happy for those around him.  Hard place to be in being that it was his last race.

A few photos for the record:

Liam's cool green "fin" car

Jonah's orange Jeep

Gavin's limousine

2013 Harris pinewood derby cars

Waiting for the first race results

1st place in his heat

The usual reminder from Dad: "It doesn't matter if you win or not..."

Awaiting the start of the final race against one other car

Ooohhhh, can it be real!

The Winner of the Wolves out of three packs

More anxious lip biting

Gavin's Limo: 2nd place overall

A real "Snow" day

In the past two weeks we've had 4 "snow days" and only one of them actually produced any of the white fluffy stuff.  It was Wednesday, in the middle of the night,  when the 30% chance of snow actually produced something....4 inches on the ground!  The boys were beyond thrilled and we totally took advantage.  Jared and I were both free from teaching that day so as soon as the luge of a driveway was plowed by our good neighbor, we had the truck packed with ski gear, thermals and ski pants were on, and lunch was packed.   We drove a quick 40 minutes to Wintergreen Ski Resort to find that we would be 6 of about 100 other skiers on the slopes.  We basically felt like we had much of the mountain to ourselves.  Never waiting in a line, never worrying about some crazed boarder busting down the slopes, never worrying about anything but keeping up with Jonah, who insisted on racing me twice and won each race.  I told him he was crazy to which he responded, "why do you make turns mom, you should just go straight down like I do!"  Crazy!

Jonah and I stopped for a break from the bitter cold in the small ski shack and Caleb found us in there warming up by the wood stove.  While I went to the bathroom apparently a man who had overheard me tell the boys that we'd get hot chocolate when Dad joined us (he was skiing double black diamonds with Gavin and Liam) offered the boys $20.  Caleb said he graciously refused, so the man handed it to Jonah who eagerly took it!  Oh, I wish I could have watched from a distance that whole exchange :)  When I came out the man was gone, but we enjoyed some nice hot cocoa thanks to a stranger.  We talked about paying it forward and are now on the look out for someone to help out.

When we finished up about 5:30 Gavin was in tears at the parking lot because he was so stinking cold and I looked at the car temperature gage and it said it was 14 degrees!!!  So very,very cold for those of us whose blood has  thinned after leaving the cold of MN and UT 6 years ago.  Even Jared said he was very cold in the hands and feet, which says a lot because he never seems to be bothered by sub-freezing temps while skiing.  After warming up the car and getting the gear loaded, we headed down to Nellysford (Nelson county) to grab something to eat.  Jared was hot on the idea of a house made root beer at one of the 3 local brew pubs.  We stopped at Wild Wolf Brewery and had a wonderful meal that included local veggies and meats and to top it off they had live music that night from a trio of guitar, banjo, and upright bass, not to mention a great root beer whose recipe was top secret.  The manager told us he doesn't even know what goes into the magic beverage despite having asked the brew master himself.

On the drive home we sang aloud to the latest installment of cousin Spencer's mixed CD and we all agreed that this was the best "snow day" ever!

Warming up in 14 degrees

Jonah and Gavin

Thank you stranger for the cocoa!

A light in my life

This is a memory I never want to forget.  It was in the Fall  and the cool weather had set in but it wasn't consistent.  This day was a Monday and Jonah and Gavin have piano back to back.  Jonah had just started piano and I didn't feel that he was ready to be left to watch and wait during Gavin's 45 minute lesson.  So during that time Liam, Jonah and I would run errands, pick Caleb up from school, or just hang around waiting in the car for Gavin to finish.  But this day, this lovely day was like an Indian Summer.  I brought yoga mats to on sit outside and work on homework and read in the warm air.  I suggested "superman" and Jonah was all over that idea.  He would run and jump to my feet while I thrusted him upward and he held his hands out in the air.  Again and again he went, trying to run from further and further away each time.  I needed a photo and Liam took on the job, catching a winner with my phone:

This is my boy who still wants me to snuggle with him every night, the boy who reaches out to grab my hand before I reach for his, this is the boy who will spontaneously hug me at unexpected times, this is the boy who loves me to take pictures of him doing all sorts of things, this is the boy whose infectious laugh can get him out of trouble and make a stressful moment come back into perspective, this is my last born and I find that I fiercely cling to his childhood.  This boy is a bright and wonderful light in my life.

Kendama

Today I went to pick Caleb up from school a few minutes early to get to cello on time.  I was walking down to the band room where he was and passed a poster on the wall title 7th Grade DAMA.  Now I've been hearing about the DAMA- Off's that he's been winning for the most part and I knew that he had beat all the 6th and 7th graders and was waiting for some gym time to take on the leader of the 8th grade, but I never dreamed the kids had put together a formal bracket of competitors.  Here's what hanging in the school this very evening:

Christmas 2012

This year we broke from tradition to create/reinforce our own traditions.  We usually spend the two week break from school out in Utah to spend time with our parents and siblings that still live there and of course to spend as many days as possible on the slopes, or at least as many days as people can handle.  I'm about a 3 day skier whereas the boys and Jared could easily ski 7 or more times, trying to hit as many different resorts as possible.  They all, even Jonah, can ski faster than me and within the next three to five years they'll be making two runs to my one!

Christmas Eve was spent with the Evans family where we enjoyed calm chowder and wild rice mushroom soup in bread bowls....so fun.  The kids were turned lose to come up with their own nativity pageant and they came up with a creative twist that included a missionary (Caleb), who told the Christmas story to an "investigator" (Lucy), including a hilarious "Three Wise Guys" rap with Caleb, Gavin, and Lucy.  We were all impressed and laughing at the end.  We parted ways early enough to ding-dong ditch the Cranes with a few gifts for them and were completely stealth until Jared tried to roll down his window to give the kids the all-clear sign and set off the car alarm!!  Too funny.

Mary and Joseph

The Three Wise Guys rap

The whole gang

Back at home it was new PJ time and a meeting on the couch for the reading of Luke 2 and the giving of sibling gifts.  I'm so glad that we did this on the eve of Christmas because they boys were so excited about what they were giving and this allowed them to have the time and focus on the brother exchange, versus what they were getting.  They were all generous with what they gave and I was also impressed with how grateful they were to each other.  So many hugs!  Jared then read Matthew 2  and Luke 2 and the kids were off to bed while Jared and I pulled things together.

The next morning looked like this:

Traditional waiting, waiting, and waiting.

Huge surprises!

Kendama Boy....probably your favorite gift

Urban Beetz headphones

Gavin's new keepsake book about his baptism

This was finished in 2 days.  Gavin prefers separation by size.

Surprise foosball table in background.  Jonah likes to separate by color.

Jonah's favorite gifts:  more Stufties

So happy and so very grateful

We finished off the night with a lovely salmon dinner with greens and our new favorite fruit salad:  grapefruit, pomegranate, and blackberry.....a lot of work, but oh so worth it!  (Jared says it's his "heroin"...)  We then stayed up way too late watching the extended version of "The Fellowship of the Ring" (Movie #1 of the Lord of the Rings) and Jonah was the least bothered by the horrible Orcs.... clearly we've desensitized him too early.

The next two days were spent in pj's that were never taken off - - playing guitar, building Legos (those blessed toys), digging for real fossilized dino poop, playing foosball, watching new movies including Napoleon Dynamite.....a new favorite of the boys in our newly carpeted basement with new couch and 60" plasma t.v. with surround sound system with this crazy subwoofer.  So fun, so cozy, so perfect!

Our favorite salad

Nanoblocks....a gift to Liam from Gavin

The Kendama rarely leaves the neck unless in use

Caleb still holds the record for wins in the family

Dino Digging

Liam giving me a lesson in Urban Beetz and Nanoblocks

Tiger Cubs

Jonah is the first Harris boy to be a Tiger Cub.  The schlep factor was minimal (the den leaders are in our neighborhood, less than 2 minutes from my house) and Jonah was so darn excited to get the chance to do what he has watched his brothers do for so many years that I could not say no.  This weekend was the Pinewood derby and Jonah was excited to race his orange jeep.  There was a lot of time talking about how there has never been a Harris boy who has come close to winning a derby in the last 5 years to prevent any potential tears.  Jared is the first to admit that producing a winning car is not his area of expertise, but we have had some very creative cars along the way.  The car was finished a hour before the race with embedded pennies and quarters to get to 5oz, tires sanded, and graphite on the axels.  Jonah's car placed 2nd in each of his three races down the track and he was thrilled, even though his average times did not get him in the top three places.  He's convinced that at the upcoming Blue and Gold Banquet he'll win the most creative or most realistic for which he would get a trophy.

He loves me to take pictures of him and always give me this great smile:

2013 Goals

On New Years Eve, which was spent with the Evans and Cranes, everyone wrote out something that they wanted to get rid of about themselves from the past year.  We then either read them out loud and tossed them into a blazing fire, or simply tossed them in the fire and keeping the past to ourselves.  The following Monday for FHE we talked about our goals for the upcoming year and reflected on the accomplishments of the past 12 months.  As much as I tend to not like goal setting (there is something about writing it out using "SMART" that bugs me and I can't really explain why, but it does), I do like the thought of looking ahead to a clean slate and thinking of how I want to fill it up.  By the way, I do not share my aversion of SMART with my kids because I do recognize the value of setting a specific, measurable, attainable, relevant/reasonable, and timely goals.  So after Jared refreshed us on SMART, we went ahead and wrote some things out and here they are:

Jared:  Consistent family prayer, cussing less (prompted by Jonah), squash every week, being on time.

Jodi:  Attend the temple four times (quarterly), work at the food bank or other community service organization on a regular basis, set up a blog (done).

Caleb:  Try new things (experiences, foods), read scriptures every day, go to a rock concert, straight A grades, more diligent music practice, get better at snowboarding.

Liam:  Be more easy going, read scriptures daily, get taller, learn to ride unicycle, talk nicer to brothers, spend 40 minutes each day on piano and violin, camp more, try new foods.

Gavin:  Be nice to Jonah and Liam and include Jonah when I have my friends over, read scriptures every day, get less than 18 seconds on the 25 meter free swim.

Jonah:  Brush teeth for longer, stop picking boogers, read Book of Mormon every night, stop accusing people (he blames others if he is ever confronted with doing something wrong or getting in trouble), help others feel happy.

Not too complicated......nice and simple, the way it should be.

Caleb and Scouts and Orchestra

Caleb I want you to know how proud I am of a these two time consuming parts in your life: scouting and music.  In terms of scouting, I know that you have really enjoyed your time here (and in the YM's program in general) and getting to head out on a campout every month has been great fun for you.  Your leaders always come back with the same report:  Caleb is a great friend and leader (you are the senior Patrol leader) and he makes efforts to ensure everyone is having a good time.  I see you do that here at home and so it is no surprise to me that you do the same things for your friends.

A few weeks back you headed to Seneca Rocks, WV for a winter campout after we had gotten back the night before from our Snowshoe ski trip.  You were stoked to have a new sleeping bag, new winter boots, new hiking boots and Dad coming along.  The boots were found the night before after my Zappos order failed (we discovered this when we got home at 6:30 from Snowshoe).  But, we were hugely blessed because what was ordered would not have fit anyway..... your shoe size went up again in the matter of two weeks and instead of being a woman's size 9 (men's 7, which are so stinking hard to come by), you are now a men's size 8!  And our local Dick's had the Sorels Dad wanted for you and a nice Goretex hiking boot.  The two of us were giddy driving home with such a blessed 60 minutes of effort!!

I would also like to tell you how in awe I am at your skills in piano, cello and jazz drums....you truly amaze me!  Not only am I impressed with your musical talents and gifts, I would also like you to know that I'm grateful for all the work you put into to making sure you are ready for lessons or rehearsals.  Each morning after I take the 3 other boys to school you spend the next 30-45 minutes practicing one of your instruments and even though you drive me crazy sometimes with the getting up and down for this or that, and breaking out a little Van Halen after you work on your assigned pieces, you really do a nice job staying focused.  I also want you to remember that I have noticed one of the best parts of being in the Evans orchestra is the weekly ride you get from Steve and Isabella.  The three of you have a grand time and like your scout leaders, Steve always reports back to me what a great kid you are and how much fun it is to have you with them!

I love you my first born hero!

A few photos to remember this time in your life:  Winter camping in Seneca Rocks, WV

The first thing you told me was about knocking down those huge icicles!

Fun to have Dad along!

Seneca Rocks in the background

Cozy in the neon-orange zero degree bag.

Evans Orchestra:

Fun friends